Temple Walk

How is it already Wednesday???  This week has completely escaped me.  They seem to be doing that more and more often lately.  

I had great intentions to write a post about the amazing Temple Walk the youth participated in on Saturday morning.  And four days later, I'm finally getting around to it.  

The Scout Master planned this entire youth activity.  He took two of the kids down to Moss Park on Conference Saturday between sessions and they biked the entire trail system leading to the Dallas Temple.  It would have been about a 22 mile hike across crazy freeway systems to walk it from our neck of the woods, so Craig opted for a safer, more scenic route.  

this...

instead of this...

Everyone met at the church at 9:00am with lunches in hand and walking shoes on.  The weather was a perfect 51 degrees and sunny with a high projected for later in the day at 72ish.  (I'm such a weather freak!)

Everyone had maps.  We coordinated GPS systems and had a designated take-off spot at the park.  We started with a lovely, brief testimony from a nice man in our ward.  And then we piled in vehicles to head down to Harry S. Moss park.  Instead of 22 miles, the kids would be walking 6.  (Not very strenuous, but much less treacherous.)  

Once we arrived at the park, the Bishop spoke to the group for awhile, while a few adults drove some "return vehicles" to the Temple to shuttle kids back down to the park after the hike was over.  While we were there, I snuck a quick picture of the destination...

My camera skills are pretty pathetic lately.  I'm making a 2nd quarter resolution to spend more time with that thing.  There was another man from our ward taking pictures all day and he emailed them to us, and holy cow! they were AMAZING!  I secretly wished I could just "borrow" them for my blog so you could see what the day REALLY looked like.  I felt a little better when he told me that he had taken 250 pictures and only the 30 he sent to us were worth sharing.  I might have to try that technique...mass quantities of pictures!

I drove the "return vehicle" adults back to the park to meet the rest of the group and that's where my part in this adventure ended.  I handed off 96 chocolate chip cookies to the Scout Master, and McKay and I jumped back in the Jeep and headed to his baseball game.  The rest of the activity was captured with the Scout Master's iPhone.  

lunch

When everyone finally arrived at the Temple (and there were some stragglers who took a REALLY LONG time to drag themselves in...)

 ...they all gathered in the shadiest spot they could find and got ready to hear from the Temple President.  

I have heard nothing but great things from the people in my house who participated in this walk.  It was a spirit-filled, uplifting day for everyone.  I'm so happy that my kids have the chance to do amazing things like this.  The Dallas Temple is absolutely gorgeous in the spring, and there is nothing more meaningful than being able to touch those walls and feel the incredible peace on the grounds of that awesome building.  

oh, and just in case you were wondering...

McKay had a great game and was so happy to be playing baseball again, but they lost.